Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/46

stition, and narrow-minded bigotry becomes the characteristic of the man. Toleration of religious opinions has not yet reached this island, and, whatever may be his real persuasion, every person residing here must conform to the external ceremonies of the established church: a heretic is still denied the boon of a consecrated grave, and his hapless ghost must be contented with a mansion in the unpurified bosom of his mother earth, unless it prefers a more extensive sepulchre in the ocean. The bodies of those who die in the faith, are usually interred in the churches; the coffins have no cover, and are filled up with quick-lime, which decomposing the flesh, the bones are afterwards removed to a general charnel-house. This example deserves to be universally followed,